Integrated Components Which Have Both Horizontally-Oriented Transistors and Vertically-Oriented Transistors

ABSTRACT

Some embodiments include an integrated assembly. The integrated assembly has a first transistor with a horizontally-extending channel region between a first source/drain region and a second source/drain region; has a second transistor with a vertically-extending channel region between a third source/drain region and a fourth source/drain region; and has a capacitor between the first and second transistors. The capacitor has a first electrode, a second electrode, and an insulative material between the first and second electrodes. The first electrode is electrically connected with the first source/drain region, and the second electrode is electrically connected with the third source/drain region. A digit line is electrically connected with the second source/drain region. A conductive structure is electrically connected with the fourth source/drain region.

RELATED PATENT DATA

This patent resulted from a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 17/083,208, which was filed Oct. 28, 2020, which is a divisional ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/379,365, which was filed Apr. 9,2019, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,854,617, each of which is hereby incorporatedby reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Integrated components which have both horizontally-oriented transistorsand vertically-oriented transistors.

BACKGROUND

A continuing goal is to achieve ever-increasing levels of integration ofintegrated memory. A related goal is to increase the packing density ofmemory components. It is also desired to develop integrated memoryhaving strong signal, good durability over a large number of read/writecycles, fast access rates, protection against cell-to-cell disturbmechanisms, etc.

An example memory device is a two-transistor-one-capacitor (2T-1C)device. An example prior art 2T-1C memory cell configuration isschematically illustrated in FIG. 1 as a device 2. The 2T-1C memory cellincludes two transistors (T1 and T2), and a capacitor (CAP) between thetransistors. Each of the transistors comprises a gate. The gates areelectrically coupled to one another, and are also electrically coupledto a wordline (WL). The transistors have source/drain regions coupledwith comparative bitlines (BL-1 and BL-2). The bitlines are coupled witha sense amplifier 4 configured to compare electrical properties (e.g.,voltage) of the comparative bitlines to one another.

The 2T-1C memory cell may have many attractive features, including highsignal strength, reduced cell-to-cell disturb mechanisms, good refresh,etc. However, difficulties are encountered in fabricatinghighly-integrated memory comprising 2T-1C devices.

Another example memory device is a ferroelectric memory device utilizinga ferroelectric capacitor for memory/storage. For instance,ferroelectric capacitors may be incorporated into ferroelectric randomaccess memory (FeRAM). FeRAM may have many attractive features,including nonvolatility, low power consumption, high-speed operation,etc. However, difficulties are encountered in fabricatinghighly-integrated memory comprising FeRAM.

It is desired to develop improved memory devices, and to developimproved memory arrays incorporating such devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic schematic illustration of a prior art assemblycomprising a two-transistor-one-capacitor (2T-1C) memory device.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional side view of a region of anexample integrated assembly comprising example 2T-1C memory devices.

FIG. 2A is a diagrammatic cross-sectional side view of an examplerelationship between a transistor with a horizontally-extending channelregion and a transistor with a vertically-extending channel regionrelative to the 2T-1C memory devices of FIG. 2.

FIG. 2B is a diagrammatic cross-sectional side view of another examplerelationship between a transistor with a horizontally-extending channelregion and a transistor with a vertically-extending channel regionrelative to the 2T-1C memory devices of FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic schematic illustration of regions of an exampleassembly comprising a memory array with 2T-1C memory devices.

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional side view of a region of anexample integrated assembly comprising example ferroelectric memorydevices.

FIGS. 5-10 are diagrammatic schematic illustrations of regions ofexample assemblies comprising example memory arrays with exampleferroelectric memory devices.

FIG. 11 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional side view of a region of anexample multitier integrated assembly.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS

Some embodiments include a memory device having a capacitor between afirst transistor and a second transistor. The first transistor has ahorizontally-extending channel region; and the second transistor has avertically-extending channel region. The memory device may be atwo-transistor-one-capacitor (2T-1C) memory device or a ferroelectricmemory device. Some embodiments include memory arrays comprising 2T-1Cmemory devices or ferroelectric memory devices. In some embodiments,neighboring memory devices may share a connection to a digit line.Example embodiments are described with reference to FIGS. 2-11.

Referring to FIG. 2, an example integrated assembly 10 includes a memoryarray 12 which comprises memory cells (devices, components) 14. Theindividual memory cells are labeled as 14 a-d so that they may bedistinguished from one another.

Each of the memory cells includes a first transistor 16, a secondtransistor 18, and a capacitor 20 between the first and secondtransistors. The first transistors of each of the memory cells arelabeled 16 a-d so that they may be distinguished from one another, thesecond transistors of each of the memory cells are labeled 18 a-d sothat they may be distinguished from one another, and the capacitors ofeach of the memory cells are labeled 20 a-d so that they may bedistinguished from one another.

Within each memory cell 14, the transistor 16 may correspond to the T1transistor FIG. 1, the transistor 18 may correspond to the T2 transistorof FIG. 1, and the capacitor 20 may correspond to the capacitor CAP ofFIG. 1.

The transistors 16 comprise transistor gates 17 (with the gates 17 ofthe memory cells 14 a-d being labeled as 17 a-d so that they may bedistinguished from one another).

The transistors 18 comprise gates 19 (with the gates 19 of the memorycells 14 a-d being labeled as 19 a-b so that they may be distinguishedfrom one another).

The transistor gates 19 of the second transistors 18 are coupled withthe transistor gates 17 of the first transistors 16, as isdiagrammatically illustrated with electrical connections 21. Thecombined gates 17/19 would be electrically coupled with wordlines, as isdiagrammatically illustrated with wordlines WL1-WL4 being electricallycoupled to the combinations 17 a/ 19 a, 17 b/ 19 b, 17 c/ 19 c and 17 d/19 d, respectively, through the electrical connections 21.

The transistor gates 17 comprise conductive material 40, and thetransistor gates 19 comprise conductive material 42. The conductivematerials 40 and 42 may comprise any suitable electrically conductivecomposition(s); such as, for example, one or more of various metals(e.g., titanium, tungsten, cobalt, nickel, platinum, ruthenium, etc.),metal-containing compositions (e.g., metal silicide, metal nitride,metal carbide, etc.), and/or conductively-doped semiconductor materials(e.g., conductively-doped silicon, conductively-doped germanium, etc.).The conductive materials 40 and 42 may comprise a same composition asone another, or may comprise different compositions relative to oneanother.

The transistors 16 are supported by a base 22. The base 22 may comprisesemiconductor material; and may, for example, comprise, consistessentially of, or consist of monocrystalline silicon. The base 22 maybe referred to as a semiconductor substrate. The term “semiconductorsubstrate” means any construction comprising semiconductive material,including, but not limited to, bulk semiconductive materials such as asemiconductive wafer (either alone or in assemblies comprising othermaterials), and semiconductive material layers (either alone or inassemblies comprising other materials). The term “substrate” refers toany supporting structure, including, but not limited to, thesemiconductor substrates described above. In some applications, the base22 may correspond to a semiconductor substrate containing one or morematerials associated with integrated circuit fabrication. Such materialsmay include, for example, one or more of refractory metal materials,barrier materials, diffusion materials, insulator materials, etc.

Insulative regions 24 extend into the base 22. The insulative regions 24comprise insulative material 26. Such insulative material may compriseany suitable composition(s); and in some embodiments may comprise,consist essentially of, or consist of one or both of silicon dioxide andsilicon nitride. In some embodiments, the insulative regions 24 maycorrespond to shallow trench isolation (STI).

In some embodiments, the memory cells 14 may be considered to bearranged in pairs (i.e., to be in paired arrangements), with each memorycell pair comprising two of the first transistors 16, and a source/drainregion shared between the two first transistors. For instance, thememory cells 14 a and 14 b may be considered to be in a first pairedarrangement 28 a. The paired memory cells 14 a and 14 b comprise thetransistors 16 a and 16 b. The transistor 16 a includes first and secondsource/drain regions 30 a and 30 b which extend into the semiconductorbase 22, and which are on opposing sides of the transistor gate 17 aalong the cross-section of FIG. 2. The transistor 16 b shares thesource/drain region 30 b with the transistor 16 a, and has anothersource/drain region 30 c on an opposing side of the gate 17 b relativeto the source/drain region 30 b. The memory cells 14 c and 14 d are in asimilar paired relationship as the memory cells 14 a and 14 b, and alsocomprise three source/drain regions 30 a, 30 b and 30 c, with the middleregion 30 b being shared between the transistors 16 c and 16 d.

The transistor gates 16 are over channel regions 32 and are spaced fromsuch channel regions by intervening gate dielectric material 34. Thechannel regions are labeled 32 a-d so that they may be distinguishedfrom one another.

The gate dielectric material 34 may comprise any suitablecomposition(s); and in some embodiments may comprise, consistessentially of, or consist of silicon dioxide.

The channel regions 32 extend horizontally, and specifically extendalong an illustrated y-axis. The channel regions 32 may be considered tohave lengths along the horizontal axis (the illustrated y-axis), with anexample length L1 being shown relative to the channel region 32 a.

Conductive extensions 36 extend upwardly from the source/drain regions30 a and 30 c. The conductive extensions may be considered to extendvertically, and specifically to extend along an illustrated z-axis.

The conductive extensions 36 comprise conductive material 38. Theconductive material 38 may comprise any suitable electrically conductivecomposition(s); such as, for example, one or more of various metals(e.g., titanium, tungsten, cobalt, nickel, platinum, ruthenium, etc.),metal-containing compositions (e.g., metal silicide, metal nitride,metal carbide, etc.), and/or conductively-doped semiconductor materials(e.g., conductively-doped silicon, conductively-doped germanium, etc.).

The capacitors 20 have first electrodes 44 adjacent the conductiveextensions 36, and electrically coupled with the source/drain regions 30a and 30 c through the conductive extensions 36. The capacitors 20 havesecond electrodes 46 proximate the first electrodes 44 and spaced fromthe first electrodes by intervening insulative material 48. The firstelectrodes 44 are labeled 44 a-d so that they may be distinguished fromone another; and similarly the second electrodes 46 are labeled 46 a-dso that they may be distinguished from one another.

The first and second electrodes 44 and 46 comprise conductive materials50 and 52, respectively. The conductive materials 50 and 52 may compriseany suitable electrically conductive composition(s); such as, forexample, one or more of various metals (e.g., titanium, tungsten,cobalt, nickel, platinum, ruthenium, etc.), metal-containingcompositions (e.g., metal silicide, metal nitride, metal carbide, etc.),and/or conductively-doped semiconductor materials (e.g.,conductively-doped silicon, conductively-doped germanium, etc.). In someembodiments, the conductive materials 50 and 52 may comprise a samecomposition as one another. In other embodiments, the conductivematerials 50 and 52 may comprise different compositions relative to oneanother.

The insulative material 48 may comprise any suitable composition(s); andin some embodiments may comprise one or more of silicon dioxide, siliconoxynitride, high-k materials, etc. (with the term high-k meaning adielectric constant greater than that of silicon dioxide). Theinsulative material 48 may be referred to as a capacitor dielectricmaterial.

The capacitors 20 may have any suitable configuration. In theillustrated embodiment, the first electrodes 44 are under the secondelectrodes 48. Accordingly, the first and second electrodes 44 and 48may be referred to as lower and upper electrodes (or as bottom and topelectrodes), respectively. The lower electrodes 44 are configured ascontainer-shaped structures having upwardly-opening containers 53therein. In the shown embodiment, the insulative material 48 and theupper electrode material 52 extend into the upwardly-opening containers53.

Semiconductor pillars 54 extend upwardly from the second electrodes 52,and in the illustrated embodiment extend vertically (i.e., extend alongthe illustrated z-axis). The semiconductor pillars 54 comprisesemiconductor material 56. The semiconductor material 56 may compriseany suitable composition(s); and in some embodiments may comprise,consist essentially of, or consist of one or more of silicon, germanium,III/V semiconductor material (e.g., gallium phosphide), semiconductoroxide, etc.; with the term III/V semiconductor material referring tosemiconductor materials comprising elements selected from groups III andV of the periodic table (with groups III and V being old nomenclature,and now being referred to as groups 13 and 15). For instance, thesemiconductor material 56 may comprise monocrystalline silicon and/orpolycrystalline silicon.

The gates 19 of the transistors 18 are along the vertically-extendingsemiconductor pillars 54. The transistors 18 have channel regions 58within the pillars 54, and have source/drain regions 60 and 62 onopposing sides of the channel regions 58. Dashed-lines are provided todiagrammatically illustrate approximate boundaries between the channelregions 58 and the source/drain regions 60, 62. The channel regions 58are labeled 58 a-d so that they may be distinguished from another; andthe source/drain regions 60, 62 are labeled 60 a-d, 62 a-d so that theymay be distinguished.

Each of the transistors 18 appears to have two gates 19 on opposingsides of the semiconductor pillars 54 along the cross-section of FIG. 2.In practice, the gates 19 of each transistor 18 would be electricallycoupled to one another, as is diagrammatically illustrated withelectrical connections 57.

The transistor gates 19 are spaced from the channel regions 58 by gatedielectric material 64. The gate dielectric material 64 may comprise anysuitable composition(s); and in some embodiments may comprise, consistessentially of, or consist of silicon dioxide.

The channel regions 58 extend vertically (i.e., extend along theillustrated z-axis). The channel regions 58 may be considered to havevertical lengths, with an example length L2 being shown relative to thechannel region 58 a.

The relative sizes of the horizontally-extending channel regions 32 andthe vertically-extending channel regions 58 may be tailored forparticular applications. For instance, FIG. 2A diagrammaticallyillustrates an application in which the length L1 of thehorizontally-extending channel region 32 is about the same as the lengthL2 of the vertically-extending channel region 58; and FIG. 2Bdiagrammatically illustrates an application in which the lengths L1 andL2 are different relative to one another (and specifically in which thelength L2 is smaller than the length L1).

In some embodiments, the source/drain regions 30 a and 30 b of the firsttransistor 16 a may be considered to be first and second source/drainregions within the memory cell 14 a; and the source/drain regions 60 aand 62 a of the second transistor 18 a may be considered to be third andfourth source/drain regions within the memory cell 14 a. The first andthird source/drain regions 30 a and 60 a are electrically coupled withthe first and second electrodes 44 a and 46 a, respectively, of thecapacitor 20 a.

The second source/drain region 30 b is electrically coupled with a digitline 66, and the fourth source/drain region 62 a is electrically coupledwith a conductive structure 68.

The digit line 66 comprises conductive material 70, and the conductivestructure 68 comprises conductive material 72. The conductive materials70 and 72 may comprise any suitable electrically conductivecomposition(s); such as, for example, one or more of various metals(e.g., titanium, tungsten, cobalt, nickel, platinum, ruthenium, etc.),metal-containing compositions (e.g., metal silicide, metal nitride,metal carbide, etc.), and/or conductively-doped semiconductor materials(e.g., conductively-doped silicon, conductively-doped germanium, etc.).The materials 70 and 72 may be the same composition as one another, ormay be different compositions relative to one another.

The memory cells 14 a and 14 b within the paired set (i.e., pairedarrangement) 28 a share a digit line connection 71 to the digit line 66,with such connection being coupled with the shared source/drain region30 b. Similarly, the memory cells 14 c and 14 d within the paired set 28b share a digit line connection 71 to the digit line 66.

In the illustrated 2T-1C memory cell 14 a, the digit line 66 correspondsto a first comparative digit line DL-T and the conductive structure 68corresponds to a second comparative digit line DL-C. The comparativedigit lines DL-T and DL-C extend to sense amplifier circuitry SA whichmay be configured to compare electrical properties (e.g., voltage) ofthe two to ascertain a memory state of memory cell 14 a. The comparativedigit lines DL-T and DL-C may be considered to be a paired set(DL-1/DL-C) which comprises a true digit line (DL-T) and a complementarydigit line (DL-C). The terms “true” and “complementary” are arbitrary.The electrical values of the true and complementary digit lines of thepaired set are utilized together during reading/writing operations ofmemory cells (e.g., the memory cell 14 a) associated with such set.

The digit lines DL-1C and DL-1T may be considered to be comparativelycoupled to one another through the sense amplifier SA. For purposes ofunderstanding this disclosure and the claims that follow, a first digitline is “comparatively coupled” with a second digit line through a senseamplifier if the sense amplifier is configured to compare electricalproperties (e.g., voltage) of the first and second digit lines with oneanother.

In the illustrated arrangement of FIG. 2, the paired arrangement 28 amay be considered to comprise a first 2T-1C memory device 14 a and asecond 2T-1C memory device 14 b. The first memory device 14 a includes afirst transistor 16 a having a horizontally-extending channel region 32a, a second transistor 18 a having a vertically-extending channel region58 a, and a first capacitor 20 a between the first and secondtransistors 16 a, 18 a. The second memory device 14 b includes a thirdtransistor 16 b having a horizontally-extending channel region 32 b, afourth transistor 18 b having a vertically-extending channel region 58b, and a second capacitor 20 b between the third and fourth transistors16 b, 18 b.

The first transistor 16 a has first and second source/drain regions 30 aand 30 b on opposing sides of its channel region 32 a; the secondtransistor 18 a has third and fourth source/drain regions 60 a and 62 aon opposing sides of its channel region 58 a; the third transistor 16 bhas the second source/drain region 30 b on one side of its channelregion 32 b and has a fifth source/drain region 30 c on another side ofits channel region opposing the second source/drain region 30 b; and thefourth transistor 18 b has sixth and seventh source/drain regions 60 band 62 b on opposing sides of its channel region 58 b.

The first and fifth source/drain regions 30 a and 30 c are electricallycoupled with the bottom electrodes 44 a and 44 b of the first and secondcapacitors 20 a and 20 b, respectively. The third and sixth source/drainregions 60 a and 60 b are electrically coupled with the top electrodes46 a and 46 b of the first and second capacitors 20 a and 20 b,respectively. The top and bottom electrodes 46 a/ 46 a, 44 b/ 46 b ofthe first and second capacitors 20 a, 20 b are spaced from one anotherby the dielectric material 48. In some embodiments, the dielectricmaterial 48 of the first capacitor 20 a may be referred to as firstdielectric material, and the dielectric material 48 of the secondcapacitor 20 b may be referred to as second dielectric material.

The first comparative digit line DL-T is electrically connected with thesecond source/drain region 30 b; and the second comparative digit lineDL-C is electrically connected with the fourth and seventh source/drainregions 62 a and 62 b.

The paired arrangement 28 b has a similar configuration as thatdescribed above relative to the paired arrangement 28 a; but utilizingthe memory cells 14 c and 14 d instead of the memory cells 14 a and 14b.

The memory cells 14 a-14 d may be considered to be substantiallyidentical to one another; and may be considered to be representative ofa large number of substantially identical memory cells which may beutilized in the memory array 12 (with the term “substantially identical”meaning identical to within result tolerances of fabrication andmeasurement). For instance, the memory array 12 may comprise hundreds,thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, hundreds of millions, etc.,of the 2T-1C memory cells.

Insulative material 90 may extend between the memory cells 14 a-d, underthe comparative digit line DL-T and over the comparative digit line DL-C(although the insulative material 90 is not shown over the digit lineDL-C in order to simplify the drawing). Such insulative material maycomprise any suitable composition(s), such as, for example, silicondioxide.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a region of the example memory array 12comprising several of the memory cells 14. The memory cells are inpaired arrangements 28, with paired memory cells of each arrangement 28sharing a digit line connection 71. Two of the memory cells are labeledas 14 a and 14 b. The memory cells 14 a and 14 b are in the pairedarrangement 28 a described above with reference to FIG. 2.

Each of the memory cells 14 comprises the transistors 16 and 18, and thecapacitor 20 between the transistors 16 and 18. The gates of thetransistors 16 and 18 are tied to wordlines WL1 and WL2 which extend torow driver circuitry (also referred to as wordline driver circuitry).

The memory cells 14 are coupled with digit line pairs which include afirst comparative digit line (DL-T) and a second comparative digit line(DL-C). In the illustrated embodiment, a first digit line pair includesthe comparative digit lines DL1-T and DL1-C; and a second digit linepair includes the comparative digit lines DL2-T and DL2-C. The digitline pairs extend to sense amplifiers (SA1, SA2) configured to comparedigit lines of the digit line pairs with one another. Each of the memorycells 14 is uniquely addressed through a digit line pair and a wordline.

The digit lines (e.g., DL1-T/DL1-C) may be considered to extend alongcolumns of the memory array 12, and the wordlines (e.g., WL1) may beconsidered to extend along rows of the memory array; with the rowsextending along the illustrated x-axis, and the columns extended alongthe illustrated y-axis.

FIG. 4 shows another example assembly 100 comprising another examplememory array 112. Identical numbering will be used to describe theassembly 100 of FIG. 4 as was used to describe the assembly 10 of FIG.2, where appropriate.

The assembly 100 includes the semiconductor base 22, and the insulativeregions 24 extending into the base. The insulative regions 24 comprisethe insulative material 26.

Memory cells 114 a-d are supported by the base 22. The memory cells 114a-d of FIG. 4 are similar to the memory cells 14 a-d of FIG. 2 in thatthey comprise the first and second transistors 16 and 18 (with the firsttransistors of the individual memory cells being labeled 16 a-d, and thesecond transistors of the individual memory cells being labeled 18 a-d).The first transistors 16 a-d comprise the horizontally-extending channelregions 32 a-d, respectively; and the second transistors 18 a-d comprisethe vertically-extending channel regions 58 a-d. The transistors 16 maybe referred to as horizontal transistors (or planar transistors) toreflect that they have the horizontally-extending channel regions, andthe transistors 18 may be referred to as vertical transistors to reflectthat they have the vertically-extending channel regions. Thevertically-extending channel regions 58 may have about the same lengthsas the horizontally-extending channel regions 32 as described above withreference to FIG. 2A; or may have different lengths than those of thehorizontally-extending channel regions as described above with referenceto FIG. 2B.

The planar transistors 16 a-d comprise the transistor gates 17 a-d, andthe gate dielectric material 34. The transistor gates 17 a-d areelectrically coupled with wordlines (WL1-WL4). The wordlines areelectrically connected with a driver (Driver 1), which may correspond toa wordline driver (i.e., row driver).

The vertical transistors 18 a-d comprise the transistor gates 19 a-d,and the gate dielectric material 64. The transistor gates 19 a-d areelectrically coupled with a conductive interconnect 76 which extends toanother driver (Driver 2). The interconnect 76 may correspond to a mux(multiplexer) line. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the mux line 76 extendsalong a same direction as the digit line 66 (i.e., a column direction).In other embodiments, the mux line may extend along the same directionas the wordlines (i.e., a row direction). The Driver 2 may be separatefrom the Driver 1 (i.e., may comprise separate circuitry from the Driver1) or may be the same as the Driver 1.

Capacitors 120 a-d are between the planar transistors (16 a-d) and thevertical transistors (18 a-d). The capacitors 120 comprise the bottomand top electrodes 44 and 46, with the bottom electrodes having thecontainer-shape described above with reference to FIG. 2. The capacitors120 of FIG. 4 are ferroelectric capacitors.

The ferroelectric capacitors 120 have ferroelectric material as at leastpart of an insulating material 148 provided between the electrodes 44and 46. Ferroelectric materials are characterized by having two stablepolarized states. The polarization state of the ferroelectric materialcan be changed by application of suitable programming voltages, andremains after removal of the programming voltage (at least for a time).The ferroelectric component of the insulative material 148 may compriseany suitable composition(s); and may, for example, comprise, consistessentially of, or consist of one or more materials selected from thegroup consisting of transition metal oxide, zirconium, zirconium oxide,hafnium, hafnium oxide, lead zirconium titanate, tantalum oxide, andbarium strontium titanate; and having dopant therein which comprises oneor more of silicon, aluminum, lanthanum, yttrium, erbium, calcium,magnesium, strontium, and a rare earth element. The ferroelectricmaterial may be provided in any suitable configuration; such as, forexample, a single homogeneous material, or a laminate of two or morediscrete separate materials.

The memory cells (devices) 114 having the ferroelectric capacitors 120therein may be considered to be ferroelectric memory cells (orferroelectric memory devices).

The bottom electrodes 44 of the capacitors 120 are coupled with thesource/drain regions 30 a, 30 c of the planar transistors 16 through thevertically-extending interconnects (conductive extensions) 36. Theconductive extensions 36 comprise the conductive material 38 describedpreviously with reference to FIG. 2.

The memory cells 114 a-d are in paired arrangements analogous to thepaired arrangements described above with reference to FIG. 2; with thememory cells 114 a and 114 b being in a first paired arrangement 28 a,and with the memory cells 114 c and 114 d being in a second pairedarrangement 28 b. The first transistors 16 a and 16 b within the firstpaired arrangement 28 a share a source/drain region 30 b, and the firsttransistors 16 c and 16 d within the second paired arrangement 28 b alsoshare a source/drain region 30 b. The transistor 16 a has anothersource/drain region 30 a on an opposing side of the channel region 32 arelative to the source/drain region 30 b; and the transistor 16 b hasanother source/drain region 30 c on an opposing side of the channelregion 32 b relative to the source/drain region 30 b. Similarly, thetransistors 16 c and 16 d have source/drain regions 30 a and 30 c,respectively.

The vertical transistors 18 have source/drain regions 60 and 62 onopposing sides of the channel regions 58. The source/drain regions 60,62 of individual memory cells are labeled as 60 a-d and 62 a-d.

The regions 58, 60 and 62 of the vertical transistors 18 are within thesemiconductor material 56 of the semiconductor pillars 54.

The shared source/drain regions 30 b are electrically connected to adigit line 66 (labeled as DL) through a vertical interconnect (digitline connection) 71. The digit line 66 comprises the conductive material70. The digit line DL extends to a sense amplifier SA and iscomparatively coupled with a reference voltage REF. The referencevoltage may be static, or may vary depending upon an operational mode ofthe memory cells 114 associated with the digit line DL. The referencevoltage REF may be any suitable voltage; and in some embodiments may bewithin a range of from greater than 0 volts to less than or equal to theVcc supply voltage.

The upper source/drain regions 62 of the vertical transistors 18 arecoupled with a plate structure 168, which is labeled as PL. The platestructure 168 may correspond to a plate line. The plate structure 168 iselectrically connected with a third driver (Driver 3). The third drivermay be referred to as a plate driver.

In the illustrated embodiment, the plate line 168 extends along a samedirection as the digit line 66 (i.e., a column direction). In otherembodiments, the plate line may extend along the row direction (i.e.,the same direction as the wordlines).

In some embodiments, the paired arrangement 28 a may be considered tocomprise first and second ferroelectric memory devices (cells,components) 114 a and 114 b. The first ferroelectric memory device 114 aincludes a first transistor 16 a having a horizontally-extending firstchannel region 32 a; and includes a second transistor 18 a having avertically-extending second channel region 58 a. A first capacitor 120 ais between the first and second transistors 16 a and 18 a. The secondferroelectric memory device 114 b includes a third transistor 16 bhaving a horizontally-extending third channel region 32 b; and includesa fourth transistor 18 b having a vertically-extending fourth channelregion 58 b. A second capacitor 120 b is between the third and fourthtransistors 16 b and 18 b.

The first transistor 16 a has first and second source/drain regions 30 aand 30 b on opposing sides of its channel region 32 a.

The second transistor 18 a has third and fourth source/drain regions 60a and 62 a on opposing sides of its channel region 58 a.

The third transistor 16 b has the second source/drain region 30 b on oneside of its channel region 32 b; and has a fifth source/drain region 30c on an opposing side of its channel region 32 b.

The fourth transistor 18 b has sixth and seventh source/drain regions 60b and 62 b on opposing sides of its channel region 58 b.

The first and fifth source/drain regions 30 a and 30 c are electricallycoupled with the bottom electrodes 44 a and 44 b of the first and secondcapacitors 120 a and 120 b, respectively. The third and sixthsource/drain regions 60 a and 60 b are electrically coupled with the topelectrodes 46 a and 46 b of the first and second capacitors 120 a and120 b, respectively.

The first, second, third and fourth transistors 16 a, 18 a, 16 b and 18b have first, second, third and fourth transistor gates 17 a, 19 a, 17 band 19 b, respectively. Each of the transistor gates may be consideredto be operatively adjacent to an associated channel region. Forinstance, the first transistor gate 17 a may be considered to beoperatively adjacent to the first channel region 32 a in that the firsttransistor gate is positioned to apply a suitable electric field toinduce carrier flow across the channel region 32 a when the wordline WL1is activated. As another example, the second transistor gate 19 a may beconsidered to be operatively adjacent to the channel region 58 a in thatthe transistor gate 19 a is positioned to apply a suitable electricfield to induce carrier flow across the channel region 58 a when the muxline 76 is activated.

The digit line 66 is electrically connected with the second source/drainregion 30 b, and extends along a column of the memory array 112.

The wordlines WL1 and WL2 are electrically connected with the first andthird transistor gates 17 a and 17 b, and extend along rows of thememory array 112.

The mux line 76 is electrically connected with the third and fourthtransistor gates 19 a and 19 b. In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 4,the same mux line is electrically connected with both the thirdtransistor gate 19 a and the fourth transistor gate 19 b. In otherembodiments, the third transistor gate 19 a may be electricallyconnected with a different mux line than the fourth transistor gate 19b.

FIG. 4 shows that the plate line 168 is electrically connected with thefourth and seventh source/drain regions 62 a and 62 b. In the embodimentof FIG. 4, the same plate line is electrically connected to both thefourth source/drain region 62 a and the seventh source/drain region 62b. In other embodiments the fourth source/drain region 62 a may beelectrically connected to a different plate line than the seventhsource/drain region 62 b.

The paired arrangement 28 b has a similar configuration as thatdescribed above relative to the paired arrangement 28 a; but utilizingthe memory cells 114 c and 114 d instead of the memory cells 114 a and114 b.

The memory cells 114 a-114 d may be considered to be substantiallyidentical to one another; and may be considered to be representative ofa large number of substantially identical memory cells which may beutilized in the memory array 112. For instance, the memory array 112 maycomprise hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, hundredsof millions, etc., of the ferroelectric memory cells.

Insulative material 90 may extend between the memory cells 114 a-d,under the digit line DL and over the plate line PL (although thematerial 90 is not shown over the plate line 168 of FIG. 4 in order tosimplify the drawing). The insulative material 90 may comprise anysuitable composition(s), such as, for example, silicon dioxide.

The mux lines, digit lines, plate lines and wordlines of the memoryarray 112 may be arranged in any suitable configuration. Exampleconfigurations are described with reference to FIGS. 5-10.

Referring to FIG. 5, a memory array 112 a includes a plurality of memorycells 114. Two of the memory cells are labeled as 114 a and 114 b. Thememory cells 114 a and 114 b are configured in the paired arrangement 28a described above with reference to FIG. 4.

The memory array 112 a includes wordlines (WL1-WL4) extending along therow direction (i.e., the illustrated x-axis direction), and includesdigit lines (DL1 and DL2) extending along the column direction (i.e.,the illustrated y-axis direction). The memory array also includes muxlines (MUX1 and MUX2) extending along the column direction, and includesplate lines (PL1 and PL2) extending along the column direction. Thewordlines (WL1-WL4) are electrically connected with a wordline driver(WL DRIVER), the plate lines (PL1 and PL2) are electrically connectedwith a PLATE DRIVER, and the mux lines (MUX1 and MUX2) are electricallyconnected with a MUX DRIVER. Also, the digit lines (DL1 and DL2) areelectrically connected with sense amplifiers (SA1 and SA2), and arecomparatively coupled to a reference voltage (REFERENCE) through thesense amplifiers. The reference voltage may be referred to as areference source, a voltage source, etc.

In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 5, the gates of the verticaltransistors 18 a and 18 b of the first and second memory devices 114 aare coupled to the same mux line (MUX1) as one another, and source/drainregions from the vertical transistors 18 a and 18 b extend to the sameplate line PL1.

FIG. 6 shows a region of a memory array 112 b illustrating anotherexample embodiment. The mux lines (e.g., MUX1) extend along the columndirection (i.e., the y-axis direction), but the plate lines (e.g., PL1)extend along the row direction (i.e., the x-axis direction).Accordingly, the gates of the vertical transistors 18 a and 18 b areelectrically connected to the same mux line (MUX1) as one another; butthe source/drain regions from such vertical transistors are electricallyconnected to different plate lines (PL1 and PL2) than one another. Insome embodiments, the source/drain region from the first verticaltransistor 18 a may be considered to be electrically connected to afirst plate line (PL1) while the source/drain region from the secondvertical transistor 18 b may be considered to be electrically connectedto a second plate line (PL2).

FIG. 7 shows a region of a memory array 112 c illustrating anotherexample embodiment. The mux lines (e.g., MUX1) extend along the rowdirection (i.e., the x-axis direction) and the plate lines (e.g., PL1)extend along the column direction (i.e., the y-axis direction).Accordingly, the gates of the vertical transistors 18 a and 18 b areelectrically connected to different mux lines (MUX1 and MUX2) than oneanother; while the source/drain regions from such vertical transistorsare electrically connected to the same plate line (PL1) as one another.In some embodiments, the gate from the first vertical transistor 18 amay be considered to be electrically connected to a first mux line(MUX1) while the gate from the second vertical transistor 18 b may beconsidered to be electrically connected to a second mux line (MUX2).

FIG. 8 shows a region of a memory array 112 d illustrating anotherexample embodiment. The mux lines (e.g., MUX1) extend along the rowdirection (i.e., the x-axis direction) and the plate lines (e.g., PL1)also extend along the row direction. Accordingly, the gates of thevertical transistors 18 a and 18 b are electrically connected todifferent mux lines (MUX1 and MUX2) than one another; and thesource/drain regions from such vertical transistors are electricallyconnected to different plate lines (PL1 and PL2) than one another. Insome embodiments, the gate from the first vertical transistor 18 a maybe considered to be electrically connected to a first mux line (MUX1)while the gate from the second vertical transistor 18 b may beconsidered to be electrically connected to a second mux line (MUX2).Also, the source/drain region from the first vertical transistor 18 amay be considered to be electrically connected to a first plate line(PL1) while the source/drain region from the second vertical transistor18 b may be considered to be electrically connected to a second plateline (PL2).

FIG. 9 shows a region of a memory array 112 e illustrating anotherexample embodiment. The mux lines (e.g., MUX1) extend along the rowdirection (i.e., the x-axis direction) and the plate lines (e.g., PL1)also extend along the row direction. The embodiment of FIG. 9 is similarto that of FIG. 8, except that the mux lines are shown extending to thesame driver as the wordlines (the row driver, which is labeled as the WLDRIVER in FIG. 9). The embodiment of FIG. 8 may be preferred over thatof FIG. 9 in some applications in that the additional driver (the MUXDriver) may provide additional operational control. However, in someapplications the configuration of FIG. 9 may be preferred in that suchmay reduce the overall number of drivers fabricated adjacent a memoryarray.

FIG. 10 shows a region of a memory array 112 f illustrating anotherexample embodiment. The mux lines (e.g., MUX1) extend along the columndirection (i.e., the y-axis direction) and the plate lines (e.g., PL1)extend along the row direction (i.e., the x-axis direction). Theembodiment of FIG. 10 is similar to that of FIG. 6, except that the muxlines are shown extending to the same driver as the wordlines (the rowdriver, which is labeled as the WL DRIVER in FIG. 10). The embodiment ofFIG. 6 may be preferred over that of FIG. 10 in some applications inthat the additional driver (the MUX Driver) may provide additionaloperational control. However, in some applications the configuration ofFIG. 10 may be preferred in that such may reduce the overall number ofdrivers fabricated adjacent a memory array.

In some embodiments, the memory arrays (e.g., 12 and 112) may be withina memory tier (i.e., memory deck) which is within a vertically-stackedarrangement of tiers (or decks). The vertically-stacked arrangement maybe referred to as a multitier assembly. FIG. 11 shows a portion of anexample multitier assembly 200 comprising a vertically-stackedarrangement of tiers 202, 204 and 206. The vertically-stackedarrangement may extend upwardly to include additional tiers. The tiers202, 204 and 206 may be considered to be examples of levels that arestacked one atop the other. The levels may be within differentsemiconductor dies, or at least two of the levels may be within the samesemiconductor die.

The bottom tier 202 may include control circuitry and/or sensingcircuitry 208 (e.g., may include drivers, sense amplifiers, etc.); andin some applications may comprise CMOS circuitry. The upper tiers 204and 206 may include memory arrays, such as, for example, the memoryarrays 12 and 112 described above; with an example memory array beingshown as “memory” 210 within the tier 204.

The circuitry from the upper tiers may be electrically connected to thecircuitry of the lower tiers through electrical interconnects. Anexample electrical interconnect 212 is shown electrically coupling thememory circuitry 210 from the tier 204 with the circuitry 208 of thetier 202. In some embodiments, the interconnect 212 may connect digitlines from the memory circuitry 210 with sense amplifiers of thecircuitry 208, may connect wordlines, mux lines and/or plate lines ofthe memory circuitry 210 with drivers of the circuitry 208, etc.

The assemblies and structures discussed above may be utilized withinintegrated circuits (with the term “integrated circuit” meaning anelectronic circuit supported by a semiconductor substrate); and may beincorporated into electronic systems. Such electronic systems may beused in, for example, memory modules, device drivers, power modules,communication modems, processor modules, and application-specificmodules, and may include multilayer, multichip modules. The electronicsystems may be any of a broad range of systems, such as, for example,cameras, wireless devices, displays, chip sets, set top boxes, games,lighting, vehicles, clocks, televisions, cell phones, personalcomputers, automobiles, industrial control systems, aircraft, etc.

Unless specified otherwise, the various materials, substances,compositions, etc. described herein may be formed with any suitablemethodologies, either now known or yet to be developed, including, forexample, atomic layer deposition (ALD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD),physical vapor deposition (PVD), etc.

The terms “dielectric” and “insulative” may be utilized to describematerials having insulative electrical properties. The terms areconsidered synonymous in this disclosure. The utilization of the term“dielectric” in some instances, and the term “insulative” (or“electrically insulative”) in other instances, may be to providelanguage variation within this disclosure to simplify antecedent basiswithin the claims that follow, and is not utilized to indicate anysignificant chemical or electrical differences.

The terms “electrically connected” and “electrically coupled” may bothbe utilized in this disclosure. The terms are considered synonymous. Theutilization of one term in some instances and the other in otherinstances may be to provide language variation within this disclosure tosimplify antecedent basis within the claims that follow.

The particular orientation of the various embodiments in the drawings isfor illustrative purposes only, and the embodiments may be rotatedrelative to the shown orientations in some applications. Thedescriptions provided herein, and the claims that follow, pertain to anystructures that have the described relationships between variousfeatures, regardless of whether the structures are in the particularorientation of the drawings, or are rotated relative to suchorientation.

The cross-sectional views of the accompanying illustrations only showfeatures within the planes of the cross-sections, and do not showmaterials behind the planes of the cross-sections, unless indicatedotherwise, in order to simplify the drawings.

When a structure is referred to above as being “on”, “adjacent” or“against” another structure, it can be directly on the other structureor intervening structures may also be present. In contrast, when astructure is referred to as being “directly on”, “directly adjacent” or“directly against” another structure, there are no interveningstructures present. The terms “directly under”, “directly over”, etc.,do not indicate direct physical contact (unless expressly statedotherwise), but instead indicate upright alignment.

Structures (e.g., layers, materials, etc.) may be referred to as“extending vertically” to indicate that the structures generally extendupwardly from an underlying base (e.g., substrate). Thevertically-extending structures may extend substantially orthogonallyrelative to an upper surface of the base, or not.

Some embodiments include an integrated assembly with a first transistorhaving a horizontally-extending channel region between a firstsource/drain region and a second source/drain region, and with a secondtransistor having a vertically-extending channel region between a thirdsource/drain region and a fourth source/drain region. A capacitor has afirst electrode, a second electrode, and an insulative material betweenthe first and second electrodes. The first electrode is electricallyconnected with the first source/drain region and the second electrode iselectrically connected with the third source/drain region. A digit lineis electrically connected with the second source/drain region. Aconductive structure is electrically connected with the fourthsource/drain region.

Some embodiments include integrated memory havingtwo-transistor-one-capacitor (2T-1C) memory devices. The 2T-1C memorydevices are in paired arrangements, with each paired arrangementcomprising a first 2T-1C memory device and a second 2T-1C memory device.The first 2T-1C memory devices each includes a first transistor having ahorizontally-extending channel region, a second transistor having avertically-extending channel region, and a first capacitor between thefirst and second transistors. The second 2T-1C memory devices eachincludes a third transistor having a horizontally-extending channelregion, a fourth transistor having a vertically-extending channelregion, and a second capacitor between the third and fourth transistors.Each of the first transistors has first and second source/drain regionson opposing sides of its channel region. Each of the second transistorshas third and fourth source/drain regions on opposing sides of itschannel region. Each of the third transistors has a fifth source/drainregion on one side of its channel region, and has the secondsource/drain region on an opposing side of its channel region. Each ofthe fourth transistors has sixth and seventh source/drain regions onopposing sides of its channel region. The first and fifth source/drainregions are electrically coupled with the first and second capacitors,respectively. The third and sixth source/drain regions are electricallycoupled with the first and second capacitors, respectively. Firstcomparative digit lines are electrically connected with the secondsource/drain regions. Second comparative digit lines are electricallyconnected with the fourth and seventh source/drain regions. The firstand second comparative digit lines are comparatively coupled to oneanother through sense amplifiers.

Some embodiments include integrated memory having ferroelectric memorydevices within a memory array. The ferroelectric memory devices are inpaired arrangements. Each paired arrangement comprises a firstferroelectric memory device and a second ferroelectric memory device.Each of the first ferroelectric memory devices includes a firsttransistor having a horizontally-extending first channel region, asecond transistor having a vertically-extending second channel region,and a first capacitor between the first and second transistors. Each ofthe second ferroelectric memory devices includes a third transistorhaving a horizontally-extending third channel region, a fourthtransistor having a vertically-extending fourth channel region, and asecond capacitor between the third and fourth transistors. Each of thefirst transistors has first and second source/drain region on opposingsides of its channel region. Each of the second transistors has thirdand fourth source/drain regions on opposing sides of its channel region.Each of the third transistors has a fifth source/drain region on oneside of its channel region, and has the second source/drain region on anopposing side of its channel region. Each of the fourth transistors hassixth and seventh source/drain regions on opposing sides of its channelregion. The first and fifth source/drain regions are electricallycoupled with the first and second capacitors, respectively. The thirdand sixth source/drain regions are electrically coupled with the firstand second capacitors, respectively. The first, second, third and fourthtransistors have first, second, third and fourth transistor gates,respectively, which are operatively adjacent to the first, second, thirdand fourth channel regions, respectively. Digit lines are electricallyconnected with the second source/drain regions, and extend along columnsof the memory array. Wordlines are electrically connected with the firstand third transistor gates, and extend along rows of the memory array.MUX lines are electrically connected with the second and fourthtransistor gates. Plate lines are electrically connected with the fourthand seventh source/drain regions.

In compliance with the statute, the subject matter disclosed herein hasbeen described in language more or less specific as to structural andmethodical features. It is to be understood, however, that the claimsare not limited to the specific features shown and described, since themeans herein disclosed comprise example embodiments. The claims are thusto be afforded full scope as literally worded, and to be appropriatelyinterpreted in accordance with the doctrine of equivalents.

We claim:
 1. Integrated memory, comprising: a first transistor having ahorizontally-extending channel region between a first source/drainregion and a second source/drain region; a second transistor comprisinga semiconductor pillar comprising a vertically-extending channel regionbetween a third source/drain region and a fourth source/drain region; acapacitor having a first electrode, a second electrode, and aninsulative material between the first and second electrodes; the firstelectrode being electrically connected with the first source/drainregion and the second electrode being electrically connected with thethird source/drain region, the first transistor, the second transistorand the capacitor all being comprised by a first memory device; aconductive structure electrically connected with the fourth source/drainregion; and a second memory device is adjacent to the first memorydevice not electrically coupled with the conductive structure; and thesecond memory device comprising a third transistor having ahorizontally-extending channel region, a fourth transistor having avertically-extending channel region, and a second capacitor between thethird and fourth transistors.
 2. The integrated memory of claim 1wherein the first and second memory devices are ferroelectric memorydevices, and wherein the conductive structure is a plate structure whichis electrically connected with a plate driver.
 3. The integrated memoryof claim 1 wherein the memory devices are two-transistor-one-capacitor(2T-1C) memory devices.
 4. The integrated memory of claim 1 wherein: thesecond transistor has a second gate transistor gate; the fourthtransistor has a fourth transistor gate; and the second and fourthtransistor gates are electrically coupled to a MUX line.
 5. Theintegrated memory of claim 1 wherein: the second transistor has a secondgate transistor gate; the fourth transistor has a fourth transistorgate; and the second transistor gate is electrically coupled to a firstMUX line; and the fourth transistor gate is electrically coupled to asecond MUX line.
 6. The integrated memory of claim 1 wherein: the firsttransistor has a first transistor gate; the second transistor has asecond gate transistor gate; the third transistor has a third transistorgate; the fourth transistor has a fourth transistor gate; the first andsecond transistor gates are electrically coupled with one another; andthe third and fourth transistor gates are electrically coupled with oneanother.
 7. The integrated memory of claim 1 wherein: the firsttransistor has a first transistor gate; the second transistor has asecond gate transistor gate; the third transistor has a third transistorgate; the fourth transistor has a fourth transistor gate; the firsttransistor gate is electrically coupled with a first wordline which iselectrically connected with a wordline driver; the third transistor gateis electrically coupled with a second wordline which is electricallyconnected with the wordline driver; and the second and fourth transistorgates are electrically coupled with a MUX line which is electricallyconnected with the wordline driver.
 8. The integrated memory of claim 1wherein: the first transistor has a first transistor gate; the secondtransistor has a second gate transistor gate; the third transistor has athird transistor gate; the fourth transistor has a fourth transistorgate; the first transistor gate is electrically coupled with a firstwordline which is electrically connected with a wordline driver; thethird transistor gate is electrically coupled with a second wordlinewhich is electrically connected with the wordline driver; and the secondtransistor gate is electrically coupled with a first MUX line which iselectrically connected with the wordline driver; and the fourthtransistor gate is electrically coupled with a second MUX line which iselectrically connected with the wordline driver.
 9. A memory device,comprising: a first transistor having a horizontally-extending channelregion and having first and second source/drain regions on opposingsides of the horizontally-extending channel region; a second transistorhaving a vertically-extending channel region and having third and fourthsource/drain regions on opposing sides of the vertically-extendingchannel region, the third source/drain region, the fourth source/drainregion and the vertically-extending channel region being disposed withina pillar of semiconductor material; and a capacitor between the firstand second transistors, the capacitor having an electrode in directphysical contact with the semiconductor pillar.
 10. The memory device ofclaim 9 wherein the capacitor has a bottom electrode electricallyconnected with the first source/drain region, has a top electrodeelectrically connected with the third source/drain region, and has adielectric material between the bottom electrode and the top electrode.11. The memory device of claim 10 wherein: the bottom electrode isconfigured as a container-shaped structure; the dielectric materialextends into the container-shaped structure; and the top electrodeextends into the container-shaped structure.
 12. The memory device ofclaim 9 wherein the vertically-extending channel region is about thesame lengths as the horizontally-extending channel region.
 13. Thememory device of claim 9 wherein the vertically-extending channel regionis not about the same lengths as the horizontally-extending channelregion.
 14. The memory device of claim 9 being within a tier of amultitier assembly.